Alpine F1 team technical director Matt Harman gave some hints about the design choices for the 2023 F1 machine “A523”.
Alpine F1 Team’s ‘Best of the Rest’ finish in the 2022 season was a small milestone in its self-defined ‘100 race plan’ to bring Team Enstone back into contention for the Constructors’ Championship.
The Alpine F1 Team, which showed the performance of the machine in the early stages of the 2022 race, won the battle for fourth place with McLaren even though it was almost derailed by reliability problems.
In qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix of F1 and the final of the Japanese Grand Prix, it showed its speed, especially in wet conditions, but the performance gap between F1’s “Top 3” and the rest of the grid has not yet been closed.
I wonder if the difference with this top team will trigger a major review of the design concept of the Alpine F1 team’s F1 machine.
Asked if the Alpine F1 team will change its car concept for the 2023 season, Matt Herrmann explained to RacingNews365.com why Team Enstone chose to pursue its current design philosophy.
“We are extending the aero concept thread,” said Herman.
“We have to do that for many reasons, but mainly there is an upper limit on the cost side, and we are pushing that upper limit to the absolute limit.
“We’ve changed a lot of the car, but we haven’t strayed too far from the aerodynamic concept.”
“What we’ve really done is focus on the mechanical part of the car to unlock the next potential.”
Development area seen as ‘opportunity’ by Alpine F1 team
Feedback from teams and drivers suggests that the facilities the Alpine F1 Team needs to move forward are just around the corner.
As for the car upgrades, Esteban Ocon has previously said he was impressed with the speed of the 2022 upgrades, which helped him outperform early midfield rivals Alfa Romeo and Haas.
Discussing the current technical regulations that have changed for 2022 to generate more downforce from the underside of F1 cars, Matt Herrmann said the Alpine F1 team would still take a big performance step with a floor upgrade. say you can.
“We still think we can find some big performances from the floor,” said Matt Herman.
“You can still see a lot of opportunities there and also the way the car is laid out.”
“It’s important to improve performance in the rear of the car, but also to manage the inlet to the floor.
“If you look at the A523 and some of the changes we’ve made to the front, you can see that we’ve realized a tremendous amount of potential in the area of the front floor.”
